Thursday, June 26, 2008

Made it back from San Antonio in one piece. It was fun but very hot and a very short trip. My contractor finished his job and so I started painting the bedroom closet. I ran out of paint because I wanted to test the color before I bought more. My husband made the mistake of calling the contractor and setting up a time for the heating and air conditioning guys to come out and move our heating vents. I was told they would be here this morning. I have been waiting all day and they did not show up. I wanted to goto town to buy more paint and to look at shower doors, mirrors and flooring. I will have to go tonight now because I need the paint but all the stores will be closed except Lowes and that just gets me mad! I am trying to consolidate my trips because of the gas and now I will have to make another trip when the stores are open. I know I will have to be home all day tomorrow because the heating guys wanted to come then too. I wish people would show up when they said they would. My time is valuable to me and it irks me that I have wasted another day again!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Our trip to San Antonio is coming up this week and I am going to have to start getting things together for it. Thankfully we did a lot of shopping last week and got the boys set on clothes for the trip. I am not looking forward to flying with all the flight cancellations lately. Last year, when we went to Hawaii, it was a bear dealing with all the security measures and even though we had e tickets and did our check-in online, we still had to wait 45 minutes because passengers that were late for their flights were allowed to go ahead of us. Traveling has become such a hassle.

The good thing is that I will get to see my parents and the rest of my relatives. I hadn't seen the group since our trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico and that was a few years back.

My mom's side of the family has had a reunion every year in a different location for the last 12 years.

This year, my son's girlfriend is coming on the trip so I had to book a two room suite at the Marriott. That should be really interesting. My brother and his family will be there too and we hadn't seen them since my parent's fiftieth in 2006.

We plan to hit Sea World, the Alamo and the River Walk. We have one day open and will play that by ear. Should be a fun time.

Since my friend's mother has passed, I have been having a difficult time sleeping at nights. What has been on my mind is that it has really been hitting home that my parents and my husband's parents are failing and it is just a matter of time before something happens. Obviously, I have known this all along but lately it is becoming more of a reality.

I just had a conversation with my mom and she told me that she had to go to an internist because she was having major bowel issues. She also has dropped a lot of weight and she told me that she is just skin and bones. My father has been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis which is a progressive lung disease that usually results in death within a few years. He is on heavy duty drugs and is feeling great but the doctors are telling him that the x-rays are not showing the progress he is feeling.

I know that this is just life and this is what happens to everyone. However, getting married and having kids was really a joyful time, the rest of it, getting older and watching your parents go downhill has been a difficult journey and I don't know how people deal with that.

I guess one has to hope for the best, prepare for the worst and have a lot of faith that no matter what happens, things will work out somehow in the end.

Father's Day is coming up tomorrow and we have a retirement dinner to go to so I had wanted to do a celebration today. Unfortunately, my friend's mom died and she needed some comforting so our women's group is getting together tonight to be with her. Yesterday, I had my youngest grill up some hamburgers and we did our Father's Day dinner on Friday. I have been trying to get the boys to hone their cooking skills so I am having each of them cook a meal every week. It has been working out great so far.

For tomorrow, I am having the boys whip up a special breakfast for their dad and they are supposed to be available to help him out with chores this entire weekend. Happy Father's Day!

The contractor has been showing up everyday for an hour to an hour and 1/2. So far he has put in about 20 hours. I guess his crew quit on him so he has been a one man show. Also his wife has been pressuring him to stay home at night and he has a day job which doesn't leave a whole lot of time left. My drywall is up and it has been taped,mudded and sanded. Hopefully next week he can texture and then I can paint.

The bad news is the $100/hour plumber that did our work in the bathroom, my husband put in the shower base and it did not line up with the drain. We only had the drain realigned and two faucet lines put in at a cost of $580.00! I told my husband to demand that the plumber come out and redo it but he won't listen to me so he is going to crawl under the house and do the work himself!

Friday, June 13, 2008

I have watched some reality shows and America's Top Model is one that I have tuned into once in awhile. It must be nice to look that good and have people clamoring to pay you to model their clothing or ads. Online there is another site called http://www.lookoftheyear.com. It's a beauty contest where anyone can participate and the judges are the public.Males and females have to be at least 14 to participate and 4 winners are chosen. Looks like there is a $10,000.00 prize too.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Two days ago, my phone quit working so I finally called Embarq and they came out today to fix it. When the repair guy showed up, he said the service is free if the problem was coming from outside of my house. If it was coming from inside, it will be a $50.00 charge plus $25.00 every 15 minutes until the problem is solved. Turns out, there was a short in the line and it was coming from the inside! The guy was really nice and said that he could disconnect a second line in the outside box and if that solved the problem then he wouldn't have to charge me. He said it will probably knock out one of my phone jacks but it should be OK. Well, my phone line worked and everything was OK.

Then a few hours later, I went to turn on my computer and no DSL! The computer said there was no connection. The repairman had assured me my DSL was intact when he disconnected the other line. I called my husband and he told me there were two phone jacks in the office so all I needed to do was switch the DSL to the other jack. Well, there was a huge desk with a big book case on it blocking the jacks and there was no way I could move it by myself.

When my husband came home, he tried to pull out the desk and ended up breaking it, then he managed to wiggle his way to where the jacks where and it turns out that both of them were not working. We then tried to stretch a phone line from my DSL box to the kitchen phone jack. The DSL worked but my phone quit. When I disconnected the DSL, the phone worked just fine.

I tried to get on the phone with Embarq and it was a fifteen minute wait. When I finally got a human voice on the phone, she asked me if I wanted DSL technical support or phone support. I said I didn't know, I guess phone support and explained the problem. She asked me the question again and I said I am having problems with both. She put me back on hold and just dumped me back into the pool of customers waiting for representatives to answer. By this point I was not a happy camper to say the least. I finally got someone and they asked me if I wanted their maintenance program which was 4 something per month. I said yes, if it would save me from getting charged $100.00/hour. Then she transferred me to another department to make an appointment, I was then cut off. I tried to call back in but it would be another 15 minute wait.

My office is a disaster. I had to box up all the books and papers and computer supplies so that we could lighten the desk and my husband could push it out from the wall. I wanted to make sure the Embarq guy could access the jacks if he needed to.

I want to pull out what little hair I have left. I have boxes and boxes of things from the remodel that are sitting all over my house. Now I have to add to it, my boxes from the office. I just want my phone, computer to work and have my house back!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I haven't been very prolific these days but I did manage to kick out this latest original called simply, "Peach Roses." I really need to make a trip to the art store to replenish my supply of brushes and paper.

My new Canon printer is working fine. I had to play around with my card files as the alignment was totally different on the new printer. That was a bit of a pain. Also all the settings are not the same so I ended up printing several things out just to get an idea on how the settings affected the final product. It's now printing almost identical to my old printer which is great!

Monday, June 2, 2008

I can't believe it's graduation time again. Last year, I remember running around with my head cut off because there were so many things going on. We held a graduation party for my son and since he was on the football team, he knew a lot of kids, so there was a big turn out. It was a blast but a little bittersweet too as I knew my son would never "pass this way again". My little boy had grown up!

This year, my best friend's daughter graduated from high school. I made some cookies and bought a lot of fruit to contribute to her party. The weather turned out great and I got to see people that I hadn't seen since my party last year. Time just flies by so fast.

Now my youngest son will be entering high school in the fall and we will be doing this all again before we know it.

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